


Special On The Inside

by leyley09



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, very very loosely based on the film John Tucker Must Die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 17:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7516684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leyley09/pseuds/leyley09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey”, Jason’s table partner says. He smiles broadly at Jason, and…. Wow. Jason’s struck speechless by the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “I’m Jordie.”</p>
<p>“You’re the other Benn?” Jason probably wouldn’t have been able to contain the incredulous tone regardless, but he’s definitely not managing to do so when much of his higher brain function crashed and died at that smile.</p>
<p>Jordie cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes at Jason. “Is that like the loser Benn?”</p>
<p>“No, no, of course not,” Jason stutters out. “You’re just… I don’t think you’re what I was expecting.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Special On The Inside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChelseaIBelieve (MochaCappuccino)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ChelseaIBelieve+%28MochaCappuccino%29).



> If you came here looking for a well-researched factual fic, you have come to the wrong place. I used Google three times while writing this, and one of those times was how to spell Brenden Dillon's name. The only way to make this ridiculous plot work was to just throw all reality out the window, so just be prepared for some 'inaccuracies'. 
> 
> This is my own fault for saying "the other Benn" in conversation, but it's a gift for ChelseaIBelieve since she's very sad that Demers has left the Stars. I hope this helped cheer you up a bit!
> 
> As always, thank you CeruleanDarkangelis for the beta!

On a wet, cloudy day in November, just before American Thanksgiving, an unfortunate thing happened at a small airport near Dallas. An unexpected shift in the wind dropped a thunderstorm just over the airport…. and left it there. With the storm not moving, the safety officials had no choice but to delay all the scheduled flights. That’s pretty standard airport procedure; most of the passengers waiting to embark were inconvenienced and irritated, but none so much as the members of the Dallas Stars team and staff waiting to embark for a four game road trip.

You see, this three hour delay was much longer than any delay they’ve ever experienced. It’s why they fly out of a smaller airport; fewer people and planes equal fewer delays. It also means less time for the various parts of the team to mingle.

On some teams, everyone hangs out with everyone else, but the Stars are different. Forwards hang out with forwards; defensemen hang out with defensemen; goalies, well, you get the picture. They don’t really interact outside of practice and games. They play just fine together; they just don’t socialize.

So being stuck together in a tiny airport for a few hours was bound to be awkward. If anyone had known how awkward, well…..

The coaching staff requested that everyone stick together in the area in front of their gate. Technically, it was the area for a couple of gates, but the other wasn’t being used. It still wasn’t enough room to prevent the disaster that followed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason’s been with this team for all of three days. He knows about five names, and no one’s really talking to him yet. It’s always weird to come into a team late; he knows this from watching other people do it. Doing it himself - it kind of sucks. It was pretty obvious that there were, well, cliques to use the easiest word, in this team. Watching the locker room the first day demonstrated that Jason, as a defensemen, would not be making friends with any of the forwards any time soon, and it was only slightly more likely that he would be spending any of his free time with the goalies. The only person who appears to be able to move between groups is the team captain, Jamie. He seems to move easily from group to group, with smiles from everyone.

Jason’s taken a seat today next to John Klingberg, one of the other defensemen. Their row of chair-benches is backed up against another row, currently being occupied by a group of forwards; Jason hasn’t learned most of their names quite yet. Their goalies have taken up the entire row across from Jason, sprawled out as if they are hoping to nap. Conversation is generally quiet, until there is a lag in conversation on the defense side.

The pause is just enough for everyone in this corner of the room to hear Antoine Roussel say, “So after Jamie and I had dinner last night…”

An almighty clatter interrupts him as, over on the goalie bench, Kari Lehtonen flails to an upright position and barely avoids falling on the floor.

“What did you just say?”

Everyone on their side of the room stops talking. Jason’s new and even he knows that this kind of conversation is unprecedented (that’s his word-of-the-day calendar, coming in handy).

“ _Excusez-moi_?” Antoine shoots back.

“I know you heard me. I asked you to repeat yourself.”

“‘So after Jamie and I had dinner last night’,” Antoine snarks back.

“What. The. Fuck. Were _YOU_ doing, having dinner with Jamie?”

“That is none of your business,” Antoine says condescendingly.

Someone drops into the open seat next to Jason. Brenden Dillon leans in and whispers at Jason, “What’s not any of Kari’s business?”

“That Antoine had dinner with Jamie last night,” Jason whispers back.

“WHAT.” Brenden doesn’t so much _ask_ as  _shout_ , directly into Jason’s ear. Everyone else turns to look.

“Who was doing what with Jamie?” Brenden demands.

“I was doing whatever the hell I want,” Antoine snaps back at him. “One of the perks of dating someone, as I’m sure you wouldn’t know.”

This time the ‘WHAT” comes in almost perfect unison from Brenden and Kari. Jason’s ears are ringing. He rubs the ear on Brenden’s side and shakes his head a little, which is the only reason that the shoe Kari flings at Antoine misses his head. Antoine yelps as the shoe connects. Kari starts yelling in Finnish. Jason hits the floor out of sheer self-preservation.

There’s yelling, there’s shoving, there’s shouting in three languages. When the figurative dust settles, Jason peeks up from his folded arms to see their seating area has been mostly cleared, with the exception of Antoine, Kari, and Brenden. And Jason, but no one is paying any attention to him as the coaching staff chews out the scuffling players. He doesn’t want to move and draw attention to himself, so he waits to move back to his seat until Lindy yells “just stay here and shut up!” and storms off.

All three men look up at him. He freezes. After a moment, he’s deemed not interesting enough to pay attention to any longer, and they go back to bickering quietly and shoving at each other.

The theme of their bickering seems to be who has dibs on Jamie. “Because we’re both forwards, we understand each other” is deemed a stupid reason. “Because a captain and his goalie share a special bond” is considered a lot of nonsense. “Because between us we cover both sides of the game, like two sides of a coin” gets straight up laughed at.

“Why aren’t any of you mad at Jamie?” It’s a reasonable question, Jason thinks, even though he can’t quite believe he said it out loud.

They turn, in eerie unison, to stare at him.

“I mean, if I’d just found out someone I was dating was seeing other people without telling me, I think I’d be pretty mad at them. Probably more mad than I would be at the other people. You guys didn’t know about each other right?” They all nod. “So you all thought you were the only one Jamie was dating?” They nod, again. “So, he lied to all of you, either directly or by omission, and you’re still fighting over him?” He shakes his head. “I don’t get it.”

“What, uh,” Antoine clears his throat. “What would you do?”

Jason takes no time at all to consider his response.

“I’d get even.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason expected that would be the end of it. Maybe over the next couple weeks, he’d see the results of each attempt to ‘get even’, but he wasn’t sure if all of the results would be visible to the entire team. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get off that easy. He’s digging through his suitcase later that night in Anaheim, looking for his comfiest sweatpants when there’s a knock on the door.

“Us defensemen need to stick together,” Brenden says as soon as Jason cracks the door open.

“Um.”

Brenden shoves through into the room, plopping down onto the head of the bed currently holding Jason’s suitcase.

Jason shuts the door and goes to change in the bathroom, mostly so he can ask himself “What the hell?” in the mirror. He’s just hung his travel-day suit in the closet when there’s a second knock at the door. He looks at Brenden, who shrugs.

“What is the right kind of ‘even’ for rotten cheaters?” Kari asks, nudging the door further open with his foot.

“I don’t - “ Jason starts, trailing off as Kari occupies the armchair in the corner. He and Brenden are noticeably not looking at each other.

He’s barely got the door closed when there’s a thudding knock.

“Jesus Christ, now what?”

“You had a good idea, I think you should help.”

“C’mon in, Antoine,” Jason drones in a monotone. Antoine makes himself comfortable on the open bed.

Jason leans against the television cabinet and eyes the three men who are staring at him as if he has the answers to their problem.

“Okay…” Jason drags out awkwardly. “I don’t know exactly what you guys have in mind. Do you have any ideas?”

“I think we need to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else, but in a way that is as humiliating as possible.”

“Geez, Kari, don’t hold back,” Jason frowns at him.

“I’ve done some research,” Antoine announces grandly, “and I have a plan.”

“I can hear the quotation marks around that. That’s not comforting,” Brenden says.

Antoine rolls his eyes. “Jamie has dated everyone who’s into guys on this team besides Jason and the other new guy, Tyler. And no one seems to know if Tyler’s really into guys or just, uh, _trop amical_ , very flirty.”

“So Jamie’s some kind of boy slut? How does that help us?”

“Don’t say ‘slut’, Kari, it’s rude. But he’s right, Antoine, how does that help you guys?”

“It helps us, Jason, because you’re going to date Jamie next, and you’re going to break his heart.”

“What?!” Jason chokes out. “I don’t want to date Jamie.”

“Well you aren’t supposed to like it,” Antoine says, like that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to say right now. “You’re supposed to be faking it. Then, when he gets all attached and involved, you dump him in the most embarrassing way possible.”

“Who says Jamie even wants to date me?” This is a excellent point which will hopefully nip this argument in the bud.

“This is where my research comes in handy. According to everyone I spoke to, Jamie had arranged some kind of private socialization within 3 days of finding out they might, possibly, be interested in dating a guy. The first time was never called a ‘date’, but by the end of it, he had made his interest clear. He also makes it very clear that it needs to be a secret, for purposes of ‘discretion’, when all of us here know it’s just because he’s probably got someone else already lined up.”

“So we just have to make sure Jamie hears that Jason is open to a relationship with a guy, and he’ll come to us?” Brenden leans back against the headboard, pondering the ceiling.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

At breakfast the next morning, Jason is one of the first to arrive at the buffet. He fills his plate and retreats to a far corner to, hopefully, eat his breakfast in peace. Other players trickle in slowly, filling in the parts of the room nearer the food and the door, so Jason is surprised when one of the chairs across from him moves.

He looks up sharply to see a tall, broad-shouldered man with a full ginger beard and bright brown eyes setting a plate on the table and seating himself in the chair. Jason knows he’s a teammate; even if he didn’t look familiar, the general size and shape of him screams “hockey player”. He may be one of the other D-men, but Jason’s terrible at faces and not much better at names.

“Hey”, Jason’s table partner says. He smiles broadly at Jason, and…. Wow. Jason’s struck speechless by the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “I’m Jordie.”

“ _You’re_ the other Benn?” Jason probably wouldn’t have been able to contain the incredulous tone regardless, but he’s definitely not managing to do so when much of his higher brain function crashed and died at that smile.

Jordie cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes at Jason. “Is that like the loser Benn?”

“No, no, of course not,” Jason stutters out. “You’re just… I don’t think you’re what I was expecting.”

“No, I get that a lot,” Jordie chuckles. “We don’t really look that much alike.”

After a moment’s silence, Jason decides discretion is indeed the better part of valor, so he should go before he sticks his foot any further into his mouth. As he stands, Jordie pipes up again.

“Hey, Jason?”

Jason freezes. “Yeah?”

Jordie leans further into the table. “Can I let you in on a little secret?”

“Uh, sure?”

“My mom says I’m special on the inside,” Jordie confides with a saucy wink.

Jason doesn’t know what to say to that, but he knows he can’t stop the bark of laughter that breaks free in response.

That wink lingers with him long after breakfast is over.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

They drop their game against Anaheim in embarrassing fashion. The D core, well it isn’t so much a core as a bunch of guys who play the same position, apparently. In the next practice, Lindy makes some changes, and Jason finds himself running drills with Jordie.

Jordie is hilarious. He’s got a snarky, sarcastic sense of humor and makes the most hysterical observations about their teammates as practice continues. He’s also not terrible at hockey. Jason likes that in a person. They like a lot of the same music and most of the same movies. They feel the same way about mushrooms. They have different opinions about where to spend a vacation, but no one’s perfect. By the time they’ve gone from practice to video review to their workout to lunch, Jason already knows they’re going to be great friends.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It doesn’t even take the whole three days for Jamie to come looking for him; it actually takes less than two hours. Jason never does find out how Jamie heard the rumor that Jason might be open to his advances, but shortly after their post-practice meetings are done in Los Angeles, Jamie pulls him aside in a hallway at the Staples Center.

“Hey, Jason, it is Jason, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I feel really terrible that I haven’t taken the time to get to know you yet. I’ve had some crazy stuff on my schedule for the last several weeks, but I’d really like to make it up to you. Do you have plans this afternoon?”

If it weren’t for the fact that Jason knows what Jamie’s “crazy stuff” was, that Jamie’s standing a little bit too close for purely platonic conversation, and that he’s still holding Jason’s arm and rubbing his thumb over the bicep, this would seem like a very normal conversation. It’s much more subtle than Jason was expecting. He’s already regretting agreeing to this plan.

“No, no plans this afternoon. What did you have in mind?”

Jamie rents a car and drives them to a beach a little further out than Jason would normally have wandered on a day off. The advantage is pretty obvious; this beach is much less crowded than the beaches nearer to Los Angeles.The smell of the saltwater, the squawks of the sea gulls, the giggles of the small children a few feet away; they’re all of Jason’s favorite things about the beach, one of the things he missed most about San Jose.

Jamie tells great self-deprecating stories. He asks sincere, genuine questions about Jason. He says all the right things, laughs in all the right places, and touches at all the right times and in all the right ways. He’s absolutely fucking charming, and Jason is fucking screwed.

The guys text him constantly all night, which he finds out when he turns his phone back on just before the hotel. Jamie laughs as it vibrates incessantly for several minutes, but doesn’t ask why, thank god. Instead, he asks if they can do this again and - predictably - that Jason keep it quiet for now, until they’re sure it’s going to work out long-term.

It’s close enough to curfew that no one is waiting to ambush him in the hall, but he sends them a “it went fine, we had a good time, he wants to do it again” text before he jumps in the shower. Their replies are all oddly self-congratulatory since Jason’s the one who actually went on the date, but at least no one’s pounding on his door demanding a play-by-play.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason takes a break from the shenanigans while they’re in San Jose to spend time with some normal people. After that, he meets Logan for lunch.

“So, what’s up with you? You look a little stressed.”

Jason rolls his eyes and takes a drink of his tea. “You could say that, I suppose. Our D core is playing like shit, I’m adjusting to a brand new team and a brand new city, and I’m fake dating my captain. What’s up with you?”

Logan chokes on his lemonade. “Hold on, hold on. You’re doing what with who?”

“I’m fake dating my captain - you’ve met Jamie, right?”

“Um...why?”

“Okay, so it turns out the Stars are fucking weird man. Like, no one talks to each other weird. So Jamie was dating three different players at the same time, without any of them being aware of it. They found out just before we left on this road trip, and they’re pissed as hell.”

“And this led you to a fake relationship how?”

“I’m their revenge.”

Logan waits until the server has set down their plates and walked off before continuing, “I’ve said some rotten things about you before, Daddy, but I wouldn’t have said you were anything bad enough to be ‘revenge’.”

“No, asshole, I’m not the revenge. I’m supposed to make him fall in love with me and then break his heart in a very humiliatingly public way, that’s the revenge.”

“And you’re supposed to do this how?”

“That’s a really excellent question.” Jason pauses to take a bite of his sandwich and think. “I don’t really know how to make someone fall in love with me. It just happens or it doesn’t, you know?”

“You could manage the humiliatingly public break-up, maybe.”

“Yeah, probably.”

They eat in silence for several minutes as Jason ponders if he should even bring up the other thing he’s concerned about.

“That’s not all, is it?”

“Dammit, how do you do that?”

“I know you, you idiot, that’s how. What else is there?”

“There’s this other guy….”

“Another one? Like, on the team?!”

“It’s even better than that, Coots,” Jason sighs. “It’s Jamie’s brother.”

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Logan says. “You’re ‘dating’ Jamie, your team captain, not because you like him but because some of your teammates want you to break his heart. And on top of that, you actually want to be dating someone else, who just so happens to be the brother of the guy you’re trying to emotionally crush.”

“Yep, that’s it.”

“Jesus christ, man, and I thought the Pacific Conference was weird.”

“You have no fucking idea, Coots. No fucking idea.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jamie stops him in the aisle on the plane bound for Vancouver the next night.

“I hope it’s okay, but I made a dinner reservation for tomorrow night. There’s this restaurant I’ve been meaning to try.”

“Yeah, sure. Who else is coming?” It’s late, and Jason played twenty-five minutes tonight. So what if he’s a little slow on the uptake.

Jamie just smiles at him and steps closer, running a hand slowly down Jason’s arm to brush along his fingers. “Just the two of us, honey, is that okay?”

Jason knows he’s blushing, but it can’t be helped. “Yeah, Jamie, that’s okay.”

“Good,” Jamie grins. “See you later.” He squeezes Jason’s fingers once before moving past him towards his seat.

Jason rolls his eyes at Kari’s double thumbs up as he passes. It feels like all he does lately is roll his eyes at people. He’s going to sprain something.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The restaurant is beautiful. The view of the Lions Gate Bridge is stunning. The lighting is dim, and the booths are cozy, high-backed and private. The food is as exquisite as one would expect from the atmosphere. They don’t order any wine, but Jason glances at the wine list anyway; some of that shit costs more than his first car.

The awkward, nervous Jamie who appears in front of cameras is nowhere to be seen. Conversation flows in the way it only seems to do in fiction. Even though Jason knows that Jamie’s done this with half the team (and god knows who else), he still feels like the only person in Jamie’s world.

They leave the restaurant and walk along the waterfront, despite the chill in the air. Jamie stops at a tiny coffee shop and buys them both hot chocolate, loading Jason’s up with whipped cream and laughing when it gets all over Jason’s nose. There’s a strangely loaded moment as Jamie tries to wipe it off; it’s almost too intimate for a second date. But the moment passes as Jamie steps away from him, and Jason doesn’t worry about it much after that.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There’s a cinema several blocks from the Canucks arena, and Jason finds himself there the next day, just hours before the game. He’s not really a strict-game-day-routine guy, but he doesn’t normally spend a couple hours at a movie on a game day. But when Jordie brought it up over breakfast, he found himself saying “yes” without a single thought. The cinema’s running some kind of afternoon special with a C-list action movie, so for C$4 a piece, they’re going to spend the afternoon in the dark. (This is a _really_ bad idea - Jason’s aware.)

Jason looks longingly at the popcorn and candy in the lobby but restricts himself to a couple bottles of water, as does Jordie. They make their way into a mostly empty theater - it is 1:00 on a weekday afternoon, after all - and select their seats. Jason’s very particular about where he sits, but Jordie just moves along with him all three times he changes seats before the previews start.

Once the lights go down for the previews, Jordie leans down and begins digging through the pockets on his cargo pants. He eventually straightens up and hands Jason a small bag of trail mix. Jason peers at the label in the light emanating from the screen; it’s the kind with dark chocolate chips in it.

“I could kiss you right now,” Jason whispers.

Jordie chuckles quietly. “It’s just trail mix, man, calm down.”

“But it’s got CHOCOLATE, Jordie. CHOCOLATE.”

Someone in a row behind them shushes him loudly. Jordie snickers again. Jason hunkers down to enjoy his chocolate, the stupid movie, and the excellent company.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

They head home immediately after the game in Vancouver, which doesn’t bear mentioning. As they deplane in Dallas, Jamie gives Jason a pointed look and a slow wink. Jason ducks his head, trying to hide his blush. When he looks back up, Jordie looks quickly away from him, frowning.

Jason’s barely closed his front door when his phone is ringing with some awful French pop song.

“Hello, Antoine. How did you change my ringtone?”

“It’s just for me, _détendez-vous_ , chill out. I want to make sure you hear my calls.”

Jason rolls his eyes and dumps his bags by the hall to his bedroom. “So what did you want?”

“We didn’t get a report on your Vancouver date, how’d it go?”

“Fine, Antoine, it went fine. Dinner was great, the restaurant was beautiful. We went down to the waterfront and had a pleasant walk. It was a bit chilly, but some hot chocolate helped.”

“ _Magnifique_. So, you think our plan is working?”

“I don’t know, maybe. It’s been like a week, Antoine, nobody falls in love that fast.”

“Maybe try to speed things up, _oui?_ We want to see results before we die of old age.”

“Good night, Antoine.” Jason disconnects and drops his phone on the counter. He can’t for the life of him remember why he thought this was something he should do.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jordie sneaks up on him while he’s warming down from his workout the next day.

“Jay!” he shouts in Jason’s ear, throwing an obnoxiously shapely arm around Jason’s shoulders.

“Jordie,” he pants back in response.

“You’re coming over. We’re having lunch, and I’m kicking your ass at Call of Duty.”

“Ummm,” Jason says articulately.

“Hurry up, okay, I’m starving.”

Jason stares after him, torn being confusion and ogling.

“Yeah, he’s kind of like that,” comes a voice from Jason’s other side.

He turns towards the voice and finds their star forward, Tyler Seguin, climbing on to the bike next to him.

“I live in the same building as the Benns, you know, and I get invited up a lot. It’s never ‘are you free’ or ‘do you want to’, it’s always ‘you’re coming and we’re doing’ whatever. But it’s always a good time.”

“Wait, they live together?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot you’re still pretty new. Yeah, they’re sharing an apartment.”

“So you spend a lot of time with the Benns?”

“Not every day; just, uh, most days.”

Jason chuckles. “Why?”

“Why not? My dogs are great, but they don’t answer me when I talk to them. And the Benns are totally awesome, dude. Like, Jordie’s really cool, he’s got all the video games you can think of, AND he can actually cook edible food. And Jamie,” - Tyler looks down at the bike with a tiny smile and a faint blush - “Jamie’s really funny and sweet and….”

“And what?”

Tyler giggles. “And he doesn’t mind my dogs crawling all over him. But that might not be such a big deal for you.”

Jason can’t decide if he wants to be horrified or amused. The other new guy has a legit crush on Jamie. Does that mean Jamie’s dating him too? Looks like Jason’s going to lunch; he’s got a mystery to solve.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason parks his perfectly normal car next to Tyler’s ridiculous Jeep and follows him into the elevator. Tyler gets off two floors lower than the Benns’ to check on his dogs but promises to be up in a few minutes. Jason spends the interminable seconds between the two floors panicking. He pulls himself together to knock on the door.

“Jason?” Jamie looks stunned when he opens the door.

“Uh, hi, Jamie.” Well, this is awkward.

“Is that Demers?” Jordie shouts from deeper in the apartment. “Let him in already, Chubbs, jesus, did you leave your manners in Canada?”

Jamie flushes and steps away from the door. “Sorry,” he mumbles.

“Hey, Jay.” Jordie leans through a doorway. “Lunch is almost ready. Where’s Segs?”

“With the dogs,” Jason answers, following Jordie back into the kitchen, “he said he’d be right up. Did you not tell Jamie I was coming?”

“Oh, uh, no, I didn’t. I didn’t think he’d mind.” It’s hard to tell, since Jordie’s looking into the fridge and not at Jason, but Jason isn’t sure he sounds sincere.

The silence in the apartment is broken by a slamming door and the unmistakable clatter of dog toenails on hardwood. Jason can hear Tyler talking, but he can’t quite make out the words. He can, however, make out Jamie’s “who’s a good boy?” and the resulting laugh. When he peeks around the wall into the living area, Jamie’s being squashed by a medium-sized chocolate lab and being licked to death by a smaller black lab puppy. Tyler’s sprawled across a nearby arm chair with a painfully fond grin.

The afternoon is kind of weird. Jordie feeds them a hodge-podge of leftovers which are all surprisingly edible. Jamie turns on a rerun of some remodeling show that Jason doesn’t recognize and proceeds to ignore pretty much everyone but the dogs. Tyler doesn’t contribute much to the conversation Jordie attempts to keep flowing; he divides his attention between Jamie and the puppy, instead.

When they’re ready to switch to COD, Tyler suddenly remembers that he needs to walk his dogs. Jamie turns an epic set of puppy dog eyes on him until Tyler invites him along. They’re out the door 30 seconds later without a word to Jordie or Jason.

“That was weird, right?” Jason turns to Jordie.

“Actually, that’s pretty normal for those two.”

“Really?”

Jordie hands him a controller. “Yeah, it’s a little weird how they like barely talk to each other, but they’re attached at the hip around here. But only around here; like I said, totally weird.”

“Yeah, weird.” Jason doesn’t really know what to do with that information, so he decides to focus on shooting some stuff on TV.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

He and Jordie shoot stuff for a few hours. Jamie and Tyler never come back. Jason heads home a little confused, wondering what his co-conspirators will make of his afternoon. He takes care of some of the boring chores that build up over road trips and tries not to think too much about “the plan”.

Just about the time he’s contemplating if he has food for dinner, his phone rings. It’s an instrumental version of “Before He Cheats”, which he has no memory of adding to his phone. Damn Antoine for fucking with his ringtones.

“Hey, Jamie.”

“Hi, honey. Do you have dinner plans?”

“Uh, no, not yet. What’d you have in mind?”

“There’s a great Thai takeout place between here and your apartment. I thought I’d pick some up and we could hang out?”

Ummm, okay. “Yeah, that’d be fine. Get me some green curry and tom yum goong?”

“Sure thing. I’ll be about 45 minutes.”

Well. This should be interesting.

Jamie shows up 52 minutes later - flushed, sweaty, and panting. He’s carrying far too many takeout bags for two people.

“You okay?” Jason raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Jamie replies a little breathlessly, “you know there’s no parking in front of your building? I had to park six blocks over, and then I was late, so I was running.”

“First of all, it’s not that big a deal if you’re a few minutes late; shit happens. And second,” Jason starts chuckling, “there’s parking underground, but you need an access code to get in. Next time, call me.”

Jamie, fortunately, laughs and passes a couple of the bags off to Jason. They spread the food out on the coffee table and turn on the Leafs game. They eat and yell at the TV during the first period, then clean up during intermission. As the second period starts, Jamie drags him back over to the couch - it turns out Jamie’s a cuddler.

It’s not the worst way Jason’s ever spent an evening. He refuses to speculate on if Jordie’s a cuddler as well.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Hey,” Jordie kicks Jason in the ankle after practice a few days later. “Let’s go get ice cream later.”

“Ice cream? How is that nutritionist approved?” Jason looks up at Jordie from the bench in front of his locker. He drops his shoulder pads to the floor and reaches down to unlace his skates.

“It’s not, but they don’t need to know about every single minute of my life.”

“Oooo, what a rebel,” Jason laughs. He gives up on his left skate for now. “Sure, let’s get ice cream.” He grins at Jordie.

“Awesome.” Jordie grins back. “I’ll pick you up. How’s 7:30?”

“That’s fine. Call me when you’re close, I’ll meet you at the curb.”

Jordie snorts at him. “I don’t think so. I’m a gentleman - I’ll pick you up at your door.” He winks at Jason and walks away.

Jason’s smiling at his skates, fighting with his laces again when Brenden drops down onto the bench next to him.

“ _What_ are you doing?”

Jason looks up, confused. “Getting changed?”

“No, asshole, I mean flirting with the other Benn. What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m not flirting, jesus. We’re just hanging out. I _am_ allowed to have other friends, you know.”

“Jason, if that’s you not flirting, then you hate everyone else you know.”

Jason sighs. “Whatever, man.” He finally gets his left skate undone and moves on to the right. “Did you need something?”

Brenden frowns. “We haven’t had an update in over a week. How are things going?”

Shit. “I think things are fine. We had lunch together yesterday, hung out at my place and watched some TV.”

“How long do you think this is going to take?”

“Oh. My. God. What is it with you people? There’s not a timeline for this shit, there is no magic formula that I can whip up to make Jamie immediately in love with me. You have to be patient, okay?”

Brenden glares at him. “Fine, whatever. Just keep us updated, alright?”

“Yes, sir,” Jason snaps back. He watches Brenden stalk out of the room and wonders if anyone else thinks it’s suspicious that Antoine and Kari follow almost immediately after him.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

At 7:30 precisely, there’s a knock on Jason’s door. Jordie looks unfairly good, especially since Jason’s not supposed to be thinking stuff like that. Everything fits him too well. Why couldn’t Jason be afflicted with teammates who think baggy sweatpants are appropriate apparel for public excursions?

Jordie beams at Jason. “Ready?”

_No, not really._ “Yep, let’s go.”

They pile into Jordie’s truck. Jason knows there are at least three ice cream places within a few miles of him, but Jordie keeps driving. They argue good naturedly about what’s playing on the radio. Jordie insists he gets to choose because he’s driving; Jason is a firm believer that the driver should drive and the passenger should DJ. At some point, mid-laugh, Jason realizes they’ve been driving for nearly an hour. They’ve reached some nameless suburb, the kind that exists around any metropolitan area. Jordie navigates it like he’s been there before, eventually pulling into a tiny ice cream stand that looks like it’s been in business for decades.

They climb out and order from the teenager at the window. Jordie’s mint chocolate chip is a ridiculous shade of green. Jason’s chocolate chunk is approximately a month’s worth of cheat calories; it is, hands down, the best thing he’s put in his mouth in ages.

“Oh my god, this is amazing.” Jason doesn’t even care that he’s talking with a mouthful of ice cream.

“That’s why I come all the way out here. I don’t know what kind of ice cream it is, and I don’t want to know. It would ruin it if I could get this at home.” He drops the tailgate of the truck and climbs up to sit on the end, feet swinging.

Jason climbs up next to him. “How often do you come out here?”

“A couple times a season.”

Jason ponders this for a few moments. “Do you bring people with you?”

“Never have before.”

That’s…..that’s a problem. It would probably be reasonable to ask why Jordie’s chosen to share this place with him, but Jason can’t afford to know the answer right now. Not while he’s still in the middle of this stupid revenge plot.

It might be time to wrap this ridiculousness to an end. Jason will worry about that later; he’s not wasting this time being distracted.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason avoids everyone he can for the next 48 hours. It’s pretty clear to him that if he completes the plan he agreed to and waits for Jamie to fall in love with him, he could be fake dating him for months. He’s not willing to do that, and he thinks it’s really too much to ask.

However, he’d like to get out of this mess without being traded for being a pain in the ass. He texts Antoine, Brenden, and Kari with tentative suggestions that he might want to back out. Antoine ignores him, Brenden sends him frowning emojis, and Kari sends him some phrases in Finnish that don’t really make sense translated into English but are probably really rude in Finland.

As he contemplates alternatives, one possibility occurs to Jason. Jamie is clearly more interested in Tyler than he is in Jason. Maybe he can work this to his advantage...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason’s solution is to pick a fight with Jamie after dinner at the Benns’ the next night. They’ve stuffed themselves with Mexican food, and Jason volunteers himself and Jamie to clean up,  since Jordie cooked and Tyler wouldn’t know dish soap if it squirted him in the face.

“So Jamie, what made you decide that you wanted to date me.”

Jamie laughs, noticeably awkwardly. “C’mon, don’t ask me questions like that.”

“But, Jamie, how will I know what parts of me I can let go if you don’t tell me which are your favorites?” He nudges Jamie with an elbow and grins obnoxiously.

Jamie looks a bit shifty, focusing more on drying silverware than making eye contact.

“It’s not that hard of a question, Jamie; come on, there’s gotta be something you like about me.”

“I don’t know, Jason, it’s not like I’m really that interested in you.”

_And... there we are._ Jason sets down the pot he’s been washing. “What do you mean you aren’t really interested in me?”

“Well, you weren’t interested in me either!”

“That isn’t the point! You asked _me_ out - why would you do that if you didn’t actually want to be with me?”

“I don’t know, it’s just what I do.” Jamie shoves a stack of plates into a cabinet that’s mostly full of glasses and slams the cabinet door shut.

“Jamie, that’s, that’s just stupid.”

“I know, I know, it just got to be a habit, and I didn’t have a reason to stop, so…”

“And now you have a reason to stop?”

Jason can clearly see Jamie fight the urge to glance out into the living room to where a certain someone is arguing with Jordie about the relative benefits of tacos vs. burritos. He loses the battle, but he tries, bless his heart.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not sure.”

“If you aren’t sure, you’re blind, deaf, AND stupid.”

Jamie blushes. Jason shakes his head. “Okay then, we need a plan.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This plan is far more complicated than Jason’s other plan, mostly because he has to keep it a secret from his other planners. As far as Antoine, Brenden, and Kari are concerned, Jamie is deliriously happy with Jason, and that’s why they’re spending all of their time together. (It’s also why he never has any time to talk to them.) Instead, he and Jamie spend almost three solid days (that’s what it feels like anyway) orchestrating their break up.

At practice, at games, around the apartment, Jordie and Tyler watch them with varying expressions of sadness and confusion.

Eventually though, they come up with a great plan. The team Christmas party is coming up, and a public event like that is the perfect setting. There won’t be any room for confusion about what went down if everyone sees it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The day of the Christmas party is appropriately rainy and grey. Jason wakes up to find a text from Jamie - **5 hours and counting!!**

Jason can’t wait. He’s ready way too early, but he makes himself sit on the couch until he’s running twenty minutes late. Combined with the rain and the regular Saturday traffic, he’s going to make a noticeable entrance.

Per plan, Jamie barely reacts when he arrives. They make obvious eye contact; Jamie leaves the room almost immediately after. Jason watches him go, and then turns toward the nearest teammate and family and introduces himself. He makes his rounds, talking to people he knows, trying to avoid any of his plotters. He’s not sure when Jamie comes back in, but they manage to stick to opposite sides of the room. It’s a little more difficult when they open the ice for the family skating; the rink is really only so big. Eventually, he and Jamie end up in the same corner, not-so-subtly nudged there by most of the team.

“Hi,” Jason says, trying not to laugh. That would totally ruin his ‘I’m mad at you’ vibe.

“Hey,” Jamie smiles. Lucky bastard has his back to everyone.

“How’s it going?”

“According to plan, so far. You?”

“I think we’re good to go. Do we want to wait any longer? Cause this is driving me crazy.”

“Nah, we might as well get it over with. I’m gonna head off while you’re talking in just a minute, just follow me. We’ll go into the visitor’s locker room, so everyone will be able to hide in the hall while they eavesdrop.”

“Sounds good.” Jason reaches out to pat his arm; Jamie jerks away from him and almost falls over. It’s a successful move, if it was intentional. Jason looks shocked, Jamie looks annoyed/embarrassed, and everyone is watching them.

Jamie strides off the ice. Jason waits a count of five before he follows.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There’s enough room in the hallway for the whole team to follow after them; they leave the door to the locker room cracked open, to make the eavesdropping easier. After all, they spent two days scripting this fight.

“Jamie, what the hell was that?”

“What was what, Jason?”

“I’m suddenly not allowed to touch you? What the fuck, man?”

“Look, Jason, I just… I can’t do this anymore.”

“Can’t do what?”

“This thing, whatever it is, that we’re doing. I,uh, shit. I haven’t ever really done this before.” Jamie paces back and forth in front of him for a minute, before turning a panicked look at Jason, mouthing “forgot my line”.

Jason muffles a chuckle with his fist. “Haven’t done what, Jamie? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jamie sighs in relief, shaking his head. “Been honest with someone I was breaking up with.”

“Breaking up with?!”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, this is a terrible place for this, but… but it’s not fair to you. I’m… crap, this is hard.” He takes a couple of deep breaths. “I’m in love with someone else.”

There’s a chorus of audible gasps from the hallway. Jamie smiles faintly; Jason hides his face in his hands and shakes with suppressed laughter.

“Jamie --” Jason pauses for maximum effect “-- it’s fine.”

There’s an epic silence from the peanut gallery.

“It’s fine?”

“Yeah man, it’s fine. It’s been like three weeks, I’m not _that_ attached to you. It was fun and all, but I’m not heartbroken.”

There’s a choking noise from behind the door that sounds remarkably like Jordie. Jason crosses his fingers.

“In fact, if we’re being completely honest with each other, I’m actually more interested in someone else, too.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic. I was totally freaking out that you were going to hate me.”

“It’s all good, Jamie. Really. Should we get back out there?”

“Yeah, probably. I’m sure everyone’s wondering what’s going on.”

There have been elephant stampedes that were quieter than the rush of people back to the ice. When the far door clangs shut behind them, Jason can’t hold it in anymore. He bends over, hands on his knees as he cackles with laughter.

“Oh god, Jamie, that was amazing.”

Jamie is almost glowing with relief. “I can’t believe that worked. Do you think it worked?”

“Shit, I hope so,” Jason tries to stop laughing and breathe. “You better get out there and get after your boy.”

Jamie shoves him in the shoulder as he passes towards the door. “Shut up, Demers.”

Jason pauses in the silence of the empty locker room to revel in being free from all the stupid plans that have plagued him for the last few weeks. He’s so tired of the sneaking and the lying and the manipulating. It’ll be nice to just be, for a change. One last sigh of relief, and it’s time to head back out to the Christmas party.

Antoine grabs him as he exits into the hallway. “What the fucking hell was that?!”

Jason jolts to a stop: Antoine’s got his fingers dug into his left bicep a little painfully.

“That was Jamie and I breaking up, weren’t you listening with everyone else?”

“What happened to the plan, to the ‘most embarrassing way possible’?”

Jason jerks his arm away, rubbing at what are definitely going to be bruises. “He beat me to it, Antoine, what was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to humiliate him in front of everyone, the same way he humiliated us! That was the whole fucking point of you dating him in the first place!”

“WHAT.”

Jason freezes. _Please, please no. Please let that be anyone else but Jordie._

“Jason.” _Fuck, fuck, FUCK._ “What is he talking about, Jay?”

Antoine glances over Jason’s shoulder and back into his face. He smiles, a little evilly. “I’ll just give you two some privacy.” He moves around Jason, not even attempting to contain his mirth.

This is not the way this was supposed to go, goddammit. “Okay,” Jason starts, turning towards Jordie, “it’s not what it sounded like.”

“Really, because it sounded like you were only pretend dating my brother as some kind of revenge from Antoine and god only knows who else.”

That’s an unfortunately accurate summary.

“Um, well, okay, it started like that, but --”

“Save it, Jason.” Jordie brushes by him towards the exterior hallway.

“Jordie, wait!”

But it’s too late. The heavy metal door bangs shut behind him, stunning Jason just long enough for Jordie to disappear completely.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason searches the entire building, from top to bottom. He’s not really surprised when he can’t find Jordie at all. He’d been frozen in shock for too long. By the time his brain shouted “WELL, GO AFTER HIM!” loud enough for him to hear, Jordie was long gone from the halls around this locker room. Stupidly, he saves the parking lot for last. Jamie’s truck is there, but Jordie’s isn’t. Jason doesn’t even know if they drove in together or not; he doesn’t really remember seeing Jordie when he first arrived, but that doesn’t mean much.

He’s standing on the sidewalk, staring forlornly at the parking lot, when his phone chirps at him. He nearly drops it to the concrete. It isn’t Jordie, though; of course it isn’t. It’s Jamie.

**You okay?**

Jamie. Jamie might know where Jordie is. Jason doesn’t reply, just runs back into the building. He clips a couple of walls on his way around corners, but he’s a hockey player. It takes more than a couple of bumps to stop him. He skids to a flailing stop in front of Jamie.

“Do you know where your brother is?”

Jamie frowns a little. “Not really. I got a vague text from him a while ago, that’s it.” He touches the screen a couple times, then turns the phone towards Jason.

**JORDIE: Taking a cab home see you later**

“If he texts you again, I need to hear about it, okay? I have to find him.”

“What happened?”

“He overheard Antoine yelling at me, and he didn’t let me explain that you knew, that I’d told you about the stupid revenge thing. I mean, I understand why he’s upset, but he doesn’t need to be upset, right?”

“Right,” Jamie nods. “I sort of had that coming; I _was_ being a dick about it. But you apologized, so we’re good.”

“Okay then,” Jason says. “Now I just need to go convince your brother of that.”

Jamie’s phone buzzes briefly. “It’s Jordie, hold on.”

**JORDIE: I’m going for ice cream won’t be home when you get back**

“Dammit!”

Jamie looks confused. “I don’t know what that means. Why is ice cream going to take him more than two hours?”

Jason scrubs a hand through his hair. “He’s got this place he likes, out in the suburbs. It takes like an hour to get there, but I wasn’t paying attention to where it was. I’ll never find it.”

Jamie just smiles and goes back to doing something on his phone. “Lucky for you, my brother loses his phone all the fucking time.”

A second later, he turns the screen towards Jason once more, displaying a map with a marker on a specific location.

“What is this?” Jason’s so confused.

“Whose iPhone are we looking for?” Tyler pipes up from just over his shoulder.

“What?”

“That’s the ‘Find My iPhone’ thing, right? Gives you a location if you lose your phone?”

“Exactly,” Jamie beams at him. “Like I said, Jordie loses his phone all the fucking time. I may not be a tech wizard, but I made him set this up so he can stop buying a new phone every two weeks when the old one’s just under the seat in his truck.” He fiddles with the phone for a minute. “Want me to text you an address? It might not be exact, but it should at least get you to the right suburb.”

Jason’s not ashamed to say that he pretty much throws himself at Jamie in that moment. It’s clearly an awkward, uncomfortable hug for one of them, but Jason doesn’t even care.

“You are my second favorite Benn brother, Jamie. I will owe you forever if you can send me to the right place.”

Jamie shrugs him off. “Yeah, yeah, get going already. He’s got a head start.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jason breaks several traffic laws in the next 45 minutes; he didn’t even know his car could hit that speed, honestly. The address Jamie sends him directs him to an area that looks familiar. He circles several blocks until he spots his target, just a couple blocks ahead of him.

Today’s weather isn’t exactly ice cream weather - Jason’s a little surprised this place is open - so there’s only one other car in the parking lot besides Jordie’s truck. The only person Jason can even see is Jordie, sitting inside his truck, slouched against the door. Jason isn’t proud of his parking, but there’s nothing to hit. He doesn’t even shut off the engine or shut his door, just climbs out and yanks open the passenger door of the truck before Jordie can even consider locking it.

“What are you doing here?” Jordie glares at him.

“You didn’t let me fucking explain, okay? Yes, roughly a month ago, I was fake dating your brother as part of some stupid plan for revenge by some of the guys he was dating before. BUT-” Jason just talks over Jordie’s attempt to interrupt “- if you’d waited, I could have told you that I already told Jamie all of that, like a week ago.”

Jordie’s eyes widen. “You did?”

“Yes, after I decided that I didn’t want to be a part of that mess anymore. I told him about it, and I apologized. He forgave me, and he agreed to the ridiculous staged break up you just overheard so that we could both get out of our fake relationship.”

“Staged?” Jordie looks down into his ice cream cup. “None of that was real?”

Glimmers of hope are sparking along the edges of Jason’s vision. “I wouldn’t say that.” He smiles, just a little, as Jordie tenses up. “The ‘surprise’ about it was fake, and obviously, we knew all of you were listening. We rehearsed the whole thing a million times.”

Jordie glances sideways at him. Jason takes that as permission to climb into the truck and shut the door. “But the main parts, the Jamie and I are both interested in other people, not in each other, those parts were real.”

“Oh?”

“Just a head’s up, Jamie and Tyler are about to get even weirder around your place.”

Jordie huffs a quiet laugh; a smile is just barely starting to crack through.

“But I know a good place you can hide out, if it gets to be too much.”

That earns him actual eye contact. “Yeah? Where’s that?”

He can’t take it anymore. He’s smiling so wide it sort of hurts. “My place. It’s a little smaller, but it comes with some perks.”

“Like what?” Jordie’s grinning back at him now. Shit, this is working.

“My sushi delivery place is better. No dog hair. And, my favorite part, it comes equipped with this decently handsome guy, funny, caring, with great taste in movies, tv, and music, who just so happens to think you’re pretty special. Inside and out.”

“That’s a pretty great selling point. Would this guy happen to like chocolate chunk ice cream? Because I ordered this stuff a while ago, and I’m not sure I can finish it without my teeth falling out.”

“He DOES like chocolate chunk ice cream,” Jason laughs, ruining the feigned surprise, and leans over the center console towards Jordie. “And he is just the kind of giving person who would take that ice cream from you to protect your precious teeth.”

“Oh god, enough with the third person.”

“No, I think this is good, I’m gonna keep it up. Wait, I screwed that up, wrong pronoun, Jason really likes this, he’s gonna keep it-”

He really can’t keep it up, though. He’s too busy learning how different it is to kiss someone with an actual beard.

Later, when Jason tells this story to their grandchildren, he’ll tell them that Grandpa Jo tasted like chocolate when he kissed him for the first time, and that’s how he knew for sure that Grandpa Jo really was, as he claimed, special on the inside.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you haven't seen this amazingly ridiculous film, the title comes from my very favorite scene (which I sort of stole because I love it too much). Here, enjoy this link: https://youtu.be/0Sz4HSNXIMk


End file.
